DE 37 12 048 A1 discloses a vehicle wherein wheel spoilers consist in this instance essentially of two vertically positioned airfoils mounted on the underbody, with a cross-section becoming narrower in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle.
A spoiler device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,511,847 A comprises sections mounted upstream from the front wheels in the direction of travel, which sections deflect the oncoming air downward. Adjoining each of the sections toward the center of the vehicle is a section which guides the oncoming air toward the brakes.
DE 33 47 364 A1 discloses mounting of wheel spoilers in motor vehicles on the underbody in motor vehicles, passenger cars in particular, in the area upstream from the wheels; such spoilers improve the enveloping flow around aerodynamically unfavorable wheels. In addition, the underbodies, for example, in the front area of the motor vehicle and starting with the front apron, for example, are relatively smooth in surface and optionally one which is wedge-shaped and tapers toward the front. The underbody ends in the area of the wheels at dome-shaped wheelhouses mounted over the wheels. Passenger cars in particular also have efficient disk brakes which are positioned in the wheels, where they are relatively well protected from environmental influences.
The object of the invention is to provide even more efficient protection of the functional elements of the wheels and optionally the wheel suspensions from environmental influences at relatively small additional cost.
This object as well as others is obtained by the characteristics of the present invention. In accordance with the invention it is proposed that the wheel spoilers of at least one wheel axle, for example that of the front wheels, be caused to end in a deflecting strip projecting more or less vertically downward, this deflecting strip being lengthened continuously inward and to the rear at least as far as the vertical central plane of the wheels extending through the axes of rotation of the wheels. In accordance with the proposal made by the invention, a considerable proportion of the dirt particles, moisture from rain, etc. flowing along the underbody of the motor vehicle is guided around the wheels and thus deflected from the wheel dishes. The functional elements in question are accordingly subjected to less impact and afforded increased protection. It is sufficient if these continuous deflecting strips extend rearward at least more or less to the axes of rotation of the wheels, but if desired the deflecting strips may also extend farther rearward.
By preference the deflecting strips may extend along the edge between the underbody and the wheelhouses, being either built integrally with the wheel spoilers on the underbody or formed directly by extensions of the underbody and/or the wheelhouses.
The deflecting strips may directly constitute the wheel spoiler and in keeping with the aerodynamic requirements are wider in the area of the wheels than in the areas serving only to ensure deflection from environmental effects, which areas may be if necessary be only up to 20 mm wide.